Tempted

“Stop psychically eavesdropping.”

“I wasn’t. I could tell by watching you gnaw your lip that you were stressing yourself out. So, I guess Darius talked to you.”

“Yeah, he has. Did you know about all that went along with giving me your Warrior’s Oath before you did it?”

“Yeah, mostly. I mean I’d read about it at school, and we talked about it in Vamp Soc Class this past year. It’s different to actually experience it, though.”

“Can you really feel what I feel?” I asked hesitantly, almost as afraid to know the truth as to not know it.

“I’m starting to, only it’s not like I can hear your thoughts or anything crazy like that. I just feel things sometimes, and I know they’re not coming from me. I mostly ignored it when it first happened, but then I realized what was going on and paid more attention to it.” He started to smile.

“Stark, I have to tell you that kinda makes me feel spied on.”

His expression went totally serious. “I’m not spying on you. This isn’t about me following you around with my mind. I’m not going to invade your privacy; I’m going to keep you safe. I thought you—” He broke off, looking away from me. “Never mind. It’s not important. You should just know I’m not going to use this thing between us to be like a creeper and mentally stalk you.”

“You thought I what? Finish what you started to say.”

He let out a long, exasperated breath and met my eyes again. “What I started to say is that I thought you trusted me more than that. That’s one of the reasons I decided to give you my oath, because you trusted me when no one else did.”

“I do trust you,” I said quickly.

“But you think I’d spy on you? Trust and spying don’t go together.”

When he put it that way, I could see his point, and some of my initial freak-out started to fade. “I don’t think you’d do it on purpose, but if my emotions are blabbing at you, or whatever they do, then it would be easy for you to, well…” I trailed off and fidgeted, not comfortable with the whole conversation.

“Spy?” he finished for me. “No. I won’t. How’s this: I’ll pay attention to the psychic stuff I get from you if you’re scared. Other than that I’ll ignore how you’re feeling.” He met my eyes and I could see his hurt there. Crap! I hadn’t meant to hurt him.

“You’ll ignore everything I’m feeling?” I asked softly.

He nodded and the movement made him grimace in pain, but his voice was steady when he answered. “Everything except what I need to know to protect you.”

Without speaking, I reached out slowly and took his hand.

He didn’t pull away from me, but he also didn’t say anything.

“Look, I started this whole conversation wrong. I do trust you. I was just surprised when Darius told me about the psychic thing.”

“Surprised?” Stark’s lips tilted up.

“Okay, maybe completely freaked is a better word. It’s just that I have a bunch of stuff going on and I guess I’m stressing.”

“You’re stressing for sure,” he said. “And by bunch of stuff do you mean those two guys, Heath and Erik?”

I sighed. “Sadly, I do.”

He laced his fingers through mine. “Those other guys don’t change anything. My Oath binds us.”

For a second he sounded too darn much like Heath, and I had to force myself not to fidget again.

“I really don’t want to talk about them with you right now.” Or ever I thought, but didn’t say.

“I got ya,” he said. “I don’t feel like talking about those punks right now either.” He tugged on my hand. “Why don’t you sit by me for a little while?”

I sat gingerly on the edge of the bed, not wanting to jostle him too much or hurt him.

“I’m not go

“You almost broke,” I said.

“Nah, you saved me. And I’m going to be okay.”

“So, does it hurt really bad?”

“I’ve felt better,” he said. “But the creamy stuff the nuns gave Darius to spread on the burn helps. Except for my chest being all tight, it’s mostly numb right now.” But even as he spoke he shifted restlessly, as if he couldn’t get comfortable. “How’s it going out there?” He abruptly changed the subject before I could ask him any more about how he was feeling. “Did all the Raven Mockers take off with Kalona?”

“I think so. Stevie Rae and the guys found three of them dead.” I paused, remembering Stevie Rae’s weird reaction to Dallas telling her that they’d put the bodies in the trash.

“What is it?” Stark asked.

“I don’t know exactly,” I answered him honestly. “There’re things going on with Stevie Rae that are worrying me.”

“Like?” he prompted.

I looked down at our joined hands. How much could I tell him? Could I really talk to him?

“I’m your Warrior. You can trust me with your life. That means you can also trust me with your secrets.” I met his eyes, and he continued, smiling sweetly at me. “We’re Oath-bound. That’s a stronger tie than what happens between an Imprint or even between mates. I’ll never betray you, Zoey. Ever. You can count on me.”

For an instant I wanted to tell him about my memory of A-ya, but instead I blurted, “I think Stevie Rae’s hiding red fledglings. Bad ones.”

His easy smile vanished and he started to sit up, then sucked in a sharp breath and went totally white.

“No! You can’t get up!” I pressed his shoulders gently back.

“You have to tell Darius,” Stark said through clenched teeth.

“I have to talk to Stevie Rae first.”

“I don’t think that’s—”

“Seriously! I have to talk to Stevie Rae first.” I took his hand again, trying to will him through my touch to understand. “She’s my best friend.”

“You trust her?”

“I want to trust her. I have trusted her.” My shoulders slumped in defeat. “But if she doesn’t come clean with the truth when I talk to her, I will go to Darius.”

“I need to get out of this damn bed so I can make sure you’re not surrounded by enemies!”

“I’m not surrounded by enemies! Stevie Rae isn’t my enemy.” I sent up a silent prayer to Nyx that I was right about that. “Look, I’ve kept things from my friends before—bad things.” I raised a brow and shot him a Look. “I kept you from my friends.”

He gri

I didn’t let him tease me out of being serious. “No, it’s really not.”

“Okay, I hear what you’re saying, but I’m still not okay with it. I don’t suppose I can get you to bring Stevie Rae here when you talk to her?”

I squidged my forehead at him. “No, not likely.”

“Then promise me that you’ll be careful and you won’t go off alone with her somewhere to talk.”

“She wouldn’t do anything to hurt me!”

“Actually, I’m assuming she can’t hurt you, being as you have control of five elements to her one. But you don’t know what kind of powers these rogue fledglings she’s hiding have, or how many of them there are. And I know a little something about being a badass red fledgling. So promise you’ll be careful.”

“Yeah, okay. I promise.”

“Good.” He relaxed a little bit back on the bed.

“Hey, I don’t want you to worry about me right now. You just need to concentrate on getting better.” I drew a deep, fortifying breath and continued, “I think it’s a good idea for you to drink from me.”

“No.”

“Look, you want to be able to protect me, right?”

“Right,” he said, nodding tightly.

“Then that means you have to get well fast so you can. Right?”

“Yeah.”

“And you’ll get well quicker if you drink from me, so it’s only logical that you do.”

“Have you looked in a mirror lately?” he asked abruptly.

“Huh?”

“Do you have any idea how tired you look?”

I could feel my cheeks getting warm. “I really haven’t had time lately to worry about stuff like makeup and doing my hair,” I said defensively.

“I’m not talking about makeup or hair. I’m talking about how pale you look. You have dark circles under your eyes.” His gaze slid down to where my shirt covered the long scar that stretched from one of my shoulders to another. “How’s your cut?”